SECURITY BLANKET: Hundreds of police officers will be added to the Ground Zero area in lower Manhattan, where construction on the Freedom Tower and memorials continued last week. Photo: Jim Mooney

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The completed World Trade Center will look more like Fort Knox with the NYPD’s plan to assign an army of nearly 700 cops to the area, Commissioner Ray Kelly announced yesterday.

In his annual State of the NYPD address to the Police Foundation, Kelly said 673 officers will be stationed at a downtown command post tasked with patrolling the Freedom Tower and surrounding streets.

“We are moving forward with the security plan and striving to do so in a way that satisfies the needs of all stakeholders, including the principal need to prevent another attack,” Kelly said.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said manpower will be added incrementally over a matter of years after the complex is finished and occupied.

It hasn’t been determined how many of those officers will be new recruits or cops already assigned to the WTC site, Browne said.

The amount of money to be designated for the project is still being worked out, he said.

The department is actively searching for a location to build the new command with the help of Citywide Administrative Services.

Counterterrorism Deputy Inspector Donald McHugh has been appointed to head up the command, which will provide security to the entire site known as the World Trade Center complex.

McHugh, who holds a law degree from CUNY, began his career as a transit officer in 1986. Before working in counterterrorism, he was the top cop in the 41st Precinct in The Bronx.

Since 2004, the Police Department has been working with the Port Authority and Silverstein Properties to address security concerns in the original design of One World Trade Center as well as other surrounding skyscrapers.

The complex includes the 9/11 Memorial Plaza, which is set to open on Sept. 11.

“September 11th struck fear in the hearts of commercial tenants downtown. Today, much of the confidence that was lost has returned,” Kelly said in his speech yesterday at the Regency Hotel.

Kelly reminded the crowd that New York is still the No. 1 target for terrorists, noting that the city has been in the crosshairs of al Qaeda and other affiliated groups 12 times since the 9/11 attacks.